I’m sick and not really up for much activity (rip my chore list), so I’m spending time reading. So far, I’ve read 3 volumes of ハピネス. I’m not enjoying it though (not to my tastes plus feels pretty boring). It’s now in my sell back pile. Hopefully I can actually sell those books soon. I realize I took them to BOOKOFF before, but I have a local shop I can try instead. BOOKOFF’s buying offer for most of them wasn’t even enough to cover the train fare to get there (like the combined offer for about 90% of the lot). I sold a couple to Mandarake and the buying price was just ok.
Next up, Natsume
Edit: whereas Happiness was a breeze, Natsume feels like a wall rn. I’m going to pivot to fudanshi family and see if my sick brain handles that better
Oooooh, that’s such a beautiful way of putting it. Going to steal hehe. Sowwy @ghelgheli’s friend~
grumpy noises
I now understand why people complain about bad scans. The one I bought didn’t even look too bad when I bought it on bookwalker, but some pages are really sad.
Today’s volume of ぼくは麻理のなか was relatively breezy and also affecting. Lots of thoughts and still six more volumes to go! But I’m itching to talk about my やがて君になる reading from last night:
Across my (re)watches and (re)reads this is at least my fourth time seeing this, but the Japanese version is even more devastating than the others. Touko’s thoughtlessness and inconsiderate treatment of Yuu coming out, Yuu so unable to even think her love for Touko that she covers it up with バカ, it’s just so… Yuu’s character is stubborn and independent in a really likeable way and her pushback against Touko being exactly what keeps endearing her is special.
This sounds disappointing T^T I would expect, paying for a book, for the scans to be crisp and high-quality!
Finished volume 1 of かぐや様は告らせたい (such a silly manga made me giggle). Can’t use my other hand to type today so I’m making today’s update short. Wishing everyone a good weekend!
花を咲かせる - はなをさかせる - 1) to enliven (e.g. a conversation); to animate; to engage in enthusiastically (Idiomatic expression); 2) to become successful and well known (Idiomatic expression)
I’ve been really getting into it so I got thru two volumes of ぼくは麻理のなか “today” (it’s ~3:30am as I write this ). I wanted to go for a third but today in particular has felt absolutely packed, and I’m a bit harried making sure I get an entry in before I sleep. I’m desperate to see how the plot resolves, so though I’m unlikely to finish it tomorrow, I’m aiming to be done on Monday.
Today’s even worse than yuesterday so. I read 海が走るエンドロール and knew nthing about it before ,now it’s one of my favourties! Such a lovely story. Will buy more hoping the
story continues being satisfying.
I was happy today was a light read. はなにあらし would be great for beginners because the grammar is easy, there are very few words you’d have to look up if you’ve completed 10 levels of WK (or even less) or studied even a little bit of kanji prior… I was almost sure there was a book club for it – why isn’t there, actually? (for reference for book club people, it’s easier than Card Captor Sakura). I was so sure too… hmpf.
Story: Two girls in high-school who are best friends are secretly dating and going through their everyday school life stuff with their friends.
Make the club happen, it’s really nice as practice for kanji you learn early on on WK specifically. Almost a waste not to have one.
I shall go do my best not to throw up for the rest of today~ fun times. The biggest challenge of all .
That’s the most important part you’re doing super well and motivating me too on days when it’s extra hard! Nice to see someone enjoying the challenge as well.
I did get through my volume of ぼくは麻理のなか today, as well as a chapter and a half of やがて君になる! No comments for now, since my brain is fried from spending the last four hours on the latest Advent of Code problem (the whole thing has rather taken over my life for the moment). Hopefully tomorrow I am feeling recuperated and ready to read.
Thank you I’m doing my best and glad I can be of some motivation! I’m sorry you’re sick, I hope it passes soon
Today started off well but I expanded all of my energy during therapy today. Some days I wonder if it’s even worth it at this point if it costs so much energy… but I did my best and managed to squeeze in some reading after all.
Today’s manga was NANA, and I’ve actually never watched it nor read it before and I was super surprised by the way the story was being told. It’s a classic, so it’s been on my TBR for years.
What surprised me the most is that what I heard about it was nothing like I ended up reading. No immediate “girls with the same name meet and become friends” type of thing (I was informed 5 minutes ago that it’s different in the anime and the train scene just happens earlier on). In fact, they don’t meet at all during volume 1, which I found extremely interesting in terms of narrative choice.
The first volume was divided into 2 parts introducing the reader to two girls named Nana and their totally different personalities, values, friends, and life in general. Nothing connecting the two of them beside a vague connection to Tokyo. It almost felt like I was reading a novel when it came to the pacing, the long dialogues and internal thoughts. Unlike manga that use blank space and art to convey certain emotions, this manga heavily relies on words.
I don’t know if it’s my cup of tea personally, especially because I felt like one of the Nanas was extra melodramatic about everything and that could be annoying before she develops as a character… but just in general, I’m not entirely sure I’m interested in reading mostly about the heartbreaks of ladies in their 20s. I think my heart is too tired and if anything, I’d like happy romance rather than sad stuff . The manga made me feel a tiny bit old hehe.
A bit that made me giggle, though:
Each of the stories started with a description of the character’s backstory, and then there was this one . That’s how I’m going to respond too from now on pft.
I actually got my reading today done before Advent of Code o’clock (~10 minutes and counting…).
I finished ぼくは麻理のなか Volume 9… which means that I’ve finished the whole series!!! What a fascinating finish, too. I’ve got the video from earlier in the thread open in the tab right next to this one and hopefully I’ll be watching tonight. I’m so curious what the popular reception of the story has been and what sort of interpretive work has been applied to it. It’s been a couple years since I seriously wrote much more than a film review but this might be an impetus for me. Really recommend even if, tentatively, I would say that I don’t agree with what the text has to say about desire, the feasible life, and the world we could have.
As for やがて君になる, I’m mid-way through the big play scene. I don’t remember it very well from my last read so it’s almost like new and I’m enjoy it a lot.
She looks like she’s dressed for the office in this outfit!! A play is an interesting diegetic device in the way it allows the author to (re)present characters as alternative possibilities. There’s good writing here in terms of the performative layer melding with the real and allowing hidden characterization to surface. That’s how everything that comes next happens!
I don’t mind a sad story now and again but I think having a drip-feed of happy-ending slow-burn romances is my ideal world…
Good job! I don’t know how people have the power to finish off their big tasks before more enjoyable ones. Like, I read about “eating the frog” the other day and I couldn’t relate less.
Did you find that it helped you have more focus and energy for your Advent of Code afterwards? Or did reading feel difficult and then you also had to do Advent of Code after?
Oh yeah, absolutely don’t mind either. I think it’s more of the “sad story grind” that I don’t love, and I got the feeling that it might be that kind of story where there’s a lot of heartbreak and things going wrong. But above all, I’m with you … slow burn romance is so peak. Or romance that’s there from the very start but you watch it slowly enfold more and more . My favourites.
goes to see what her manga Advent is today
Lol, it’s とんがり帽子のアトリエ.
I said I’ll read it after the challenge, but the randomiser has decided it’ll be now instead, woo~
Finished reading volume 1 of とんがり帽子のアトリエ and it was so cute!! I think the art is really pretty and the story is interesting. The ending especially made me curious about how it continues.
I feel like I can never get tired of having a story element (in this case the main character) provide the reader with insights into the world building. The reader doesn’t know how the story works and having a character be as confused allows the reader to live through the range of new experiences and emotions along with that character. I always find it super comforting, because the character “suffers” through all the world building bits and has to remember them just like we do hehe.
I really like when the chapter numbers have a cool design~ I know it probably has nothing to do with it, but the robes also have lines on them. Maybe I just like lines hmm…
魔法陣 - まほうじん - summoning circle (esp. in fantasy fiction); magic circle
悍ましい - おぞましい - appalling; horrifying; dreadful; hideous; revolting; disgusting (Usually written using kana alone)
結託 - けったく - conspiracy; collusion
Since I’d finished ぼくは麻理のなか yesterday, I finally got started on ホリミヤ—and I have to say, it is a bear in comparison. I know it’s still very elementary on the grand scale of things, but compared to everything I’ve read so far (really just Shuuzo Oshimi’s works and やがて君になる), the text density is easily twice or thrice as much per page + smaller so I have to squint even when I’m zoomed in. In the time it took me to read the first volume I would probably have read three volumes of ハピネス
I enjoyed it of course and I’m going to keep reading, but I also want to be able to hit my advent goal without quite so much exhaustion every day. I’ll probably start おかえりアリス by Oshimi tomorrow and try having that be my volume a day, while aiming for just a chapter of ホリミヤ daily until my skills improve.
Very cute moment between them that I’m not sure I remember from the anime!
I also got through Chapter 31 of やがて君になる! Still in the middle of the big play that the whole story has been building up to so it’s very juicy. This is my big treat every day and to be honest I don’t know what I’m gonna do once it’s over. Maybe 付き合ってあげてもいいかな but I don’t think that one has furigana. I’ve read tons of yuri but I’m not sure which ones are on the easier side in the original language!
DESERVED! I know she was channelling her out of character, genuine frustrations with Touko in that moment. Lovely development of their relationship throughout these chapters.
That’s just the thing! I find it deeply enjoyable to solve these problems even if they also frustrate me sometimes. I lose myself in the ideas and find that time passes before I even know it. But I definitely prefer when I’ve done the reading first, because on the hard days AoC is much more exhausting, so by the time I’ve solved a problem I just want to go to sleep
100% I think angst and sad stories add some much needed flavour sometimes. Somehow though it’s the positively developing romances that I never tire of. Completely second “romance that’s there from the very start but you watch it slowly enfold”, that’s why 付き合ってあげてもいいかな is one of my favourites.
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Finished volume 1 of かぐや様は告らせたい (such a silly manga 
made me giggle). Can’t use my other hand to type today so I’m making today’s update short. Wishing everyone a good weekend!
). I wanted to go for a third but today in particular has felt absolutely packed, and I’m a bit harried making sure I get an entry in before I sleep. I’m desperate to see how the plot resolves, so though I’m unlikely to finish it tomorrow, I’m aiming to be done on Monday.
Such a lovely story. Will buy more hoping the
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Nice to see someone enjoying the challenge as well.
. That’s how I’m going to respond too from now on pft.
I don’t mind a sad story now and again but I think having a drip-feed of happy-ending slow-burn romances is my ideal world…
Good job! 
. My favourites.
